There is a small, but significant museum in Madrid, just within a stone’s throw from the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemissa Museum. They have a nice collection of expressionist paintings, like my selected one: the Metropolis by the German painter, George Grosz.
“This world is ugly, sick and mendacious.” once Grosz said and this one sentence represents his feelings very well. In his time, World War One was a big shock. People went to hell and back, especially young Germans, who practically joined the army right from their school desk to face cruelties and brutalities. They were dead in a month and if they were not, their mental state were damaged for the rest of their lives. People were disillusioned and that is what expressionism expresses.
George Grosz was a soldier too, and survived. After the war, he lived in Berlin, what was the post-war-twenties’ most eclectic, busy and crazy metropolis. He hated people in the city but loved the restless nightlife. He drew satiric drawings for a newspaper. Grosz massively criticized the politics, so soon the German government banned his paintings. He immigrated to the United States in 1933. He carried Metropolis under his armpit. Later he became disappointed in people and went back to Berlin. But that Berlin was not the same as he knew it and after a pub-crawling night he died in suspicious circumstances.
Metropolis was with him in Berlin. He created the painting when he was on leave from battlefield in 1916/17. Grosz painted another Metropolis at the same time, which now is in MOMA’s collection. The subject is Berlin in both cases, which looks like a different kind of battlefield as well. We can see rushing people, misshapen faces, and topsy-turvy streets. And on top of it all, he even “spilled” bloody crimson paint on it. His brain absorbed so much cruelty and his eyes witnessed so many deaths that he could only see the world through blood’s color. It is very powerful.
The composition is very interesting. It is almost symmetrical because a lamp post stands in the middle of the picture, a little bit more on the right side dividing the space in two. It is a graceful and slim lamp post, stable and with a fine, curvy top. This is the only nice thing in the picture. It stretches over the metropolis, over the crowd, over the chaos. It is the crucifix. It does not emerge from the crimson background and it is not significant. It is just its own delicate form and middle position, which reminds me of the crucifix. If Grosz would have painted it lighter, it would have popped up more and would obviously be significant.
Tall buildings frame the scene on both sides. The lower side is full of men (I could not find any women on the picture, maybe the naked figure under the café sign?) overlapping each other. They wear nice suits, but their faces are mere skulls or transparent, like jellyfish. Everybody is mean, arrogant and cruel on that painting. The inside ugliness is visible outside, on their faces.
A big, disfigured man in red is eating a tiny one in blue. He is in the middle of the picture and he is the biggest figure. But I see dogs, horses, and neon signs as well. There is a blind man with a stick, and a car, a tram, a black coffin, and a rumpled American flag.
In the upper side, there are red shades of houses, churches and a bloody, full moon. Behind the lamp post there is a huge hotel building facing us with its corner side. Streets are running to the left and to the right tearing the space apart in a V form.
The Metropolis is a very impressive painting, especially in person. Its fifty shades of crimson are very strong, very memorable.
George Grosz’ world is not different from the world now. I am afraid nothing has changed since 1917. Every single human being is precious, but a mass of people is stupid. Grosz’ crowd of philistines could live today. They are negligent and selfish today as much as they were a hundred years ago. They trample each other.
Their transparent portrayal makes me think of that we are here only temporarily in the world. We will cease to exist soon and only what we created will remain after us standing steadfast as the thin lamp post.
